1864, Charles Kingsley, Lecture IX: The Monk a Civilizer, The Roman and the Teuton: A Series of Lectures Delivered Before the University of Cambridge, page 240,

The solitaries of the Thebaid found that they became selfish wild beasts, or went mad, if they remained alone; and they formed themselves into lauras, 'lanes' of huts, convents, under a common abbot or father.

(historical, Eastern Orthodox Church) A cluster of cells or caves for hermits, with a church and sometimes a refectory at the centre.

There were the cenobia, or monasteries proper, where the life was according to the lines laid down by St Basil; and there were the lauras, wherein a semi-eremitical life was followed, the monks living in separate huts within the enclosure.